India's reigning Olympic champion Neeraj Chopra is looking to breach the 90-metre mark with his Javelin in 2023. The star Indian has been among the top athletes in the world and has won some big medals in the recent few years. Chopra also came agonisingly close to the 90m mark when he sent the javelin to 89.94m in the Stockholm leg of the prestigious Diamond League.
After the historic gold in Tokyo, the 24-year-old Olympic champion javelin thrower has continued to raise expectations with a silver at the World Championships, before adding another feather to his cap by winning the Diamond League Finals gold. "In this new year, I hope I will put an end to this question," Chopra told reporters in a video interaction from England where he's doing off-season training.
In hindsight, Chopra thinks he could have achieved the mark in Stockholm. "I could have done that if I landed my foot a few centimeters ahead. Yes, it's just a matter of six centimeters -- but a magical mark for an athlete. Whenever you talk about a top athlete we all say like this he's done 90m," Chopra said.
He added, "But I'm not bothered about the pressure of expectations. It will happen when it has to. It could have happened last year or the year before, but maybe God has kept a perfect time and place for that." Chopra is not bogged down by the pressure of expectations and said he always took them positively. "I don't think much about the expectations. Yes, you have to handle both your own and others' expectations. But when I'm competing, my mind goes blank. It's about giving it your all, your 100 percent thinking that you have prepared for just this day. And somewhere these expectations from the people who love me play a positive part."
The penultimate year before the Paris Olympics has a host of important events lined up, including the rescheduled Asian Games in Hangzhou, and Chopra said they are yet to take a call on when to start preparations. "Basically, I've got three big events this year -- the World Championships, Asian Games, and the Diamond League Final. About when to start, I have not thought about it. I will plan with the coach to assess the situation in China. If it happens as per schedule in October, we may start the season a bit late so that we can stretch it till the Asian Games," he added.
Keeping that in mind, Chopra is just focused on strength-building exercises in indoor training in England and when they shift their training base to South Africa he would switch to javelin throws. "I'm mainly doing shoulder strengthening exercises. Lifting heavy balls, weighing about 8-10kg for building power and strength. I'm also throwing heavy balls of about 1.8-2kg. From our next camp in South Africa, where the weather is also good we can start with the javelin."
